00:00 Hi there everybody, Adam Cleary from 442 here and I have nothing more elaborate in way of
00:08 an introduction besides saying we need to talk about Jon Stones, so...
00:14 Okay, so as you've no doubt seen this season, Manchester City are quite good.
00:20 Every time a team sheet drops for them we see this sort of shape with these sort of
00:23 names and barring a miraculous performance by Inter Milan this coming weekend, they are
00:27 almost certainly going to win the treble.
00:30 And the thing is, right, winning the treble is a frankly remarkable achievement, but if
00:34 there was one thing more remarkable than that, it has been the season enjoyed by this man
00:41 here.
00:42 Jonathan "MiddleName" Stones.
00:45 Now really quickly before we get started, you probably already know this is not how
00:47 Manchester City play at all, it's not a 4-3-3 or whatever you want to call it they do, this
00:51 box midfield with the defenders stepping out.
00:53 We've already done videos on it, I'll link them somewhere, other channels have done videos
00:56 on it, but ostensibly what happens is that once they've got the ball in their build-up
01:00 phase, Jon Stones comes out into the middle of the pitch, forms a box midfield with Rodri
01:04 and whoever's playing there, this moves across into a back three and that allows these two
01:08 to shuffle up into a flat, mad fine.
01:11 Now a lot of other teams are doing this this season, we've seen Zinchenko come across from
01:14 left back to do it for Arsenal, we've started seeing Trent Alexander-Arnold come across
01:17 from right back to do it for Liverpool, but the difference with Jon Stones doing it is
01:22 that, how can I put this, in every other system the defender moving into the midfield is
01:26 there to make up the numbers, to create an overload, to give the team an advantage, to
01:30 allow the other midfielders to do more midfieldy things, but with Jon Stones, he is the one
01:36 doing the midfieldy things, in fact he's probably right now one of the best five players
01:40 in the world at doing midfieldy things.
01:44 Central defender, Jon Stones.
01:46 And the thing is, you simply could not have wished for a better living example of all
01:49 of this than the FA Cup Final.
01:51 From start to finish, from end to end, from top to bottom, from balls to bones, Jon Stones
01:57 put in one of the all-time great Cup Final performances, and he did so largely out of
02:02 position.
02:03 So defensive midfielder, number six, pivot player, whatever name you want to give it,
02:07 what makes Jon Stones so good at it?
02:10 Let's watch.
02:11 So to get us started, he is always the first player that City look for in the build-up,
02:14 because in this back line, he is the most accomplished passer of the ball.
02:17 You can see here, easy enough, he's very happy to knock it around with his teammates at the
02:20 back, or if needs be, he can go a little bit longer, direct it into the midfield.
02:23 But he's also the player that Man City look for when they're in a bit of a tight spot,
02:26 when they're under pressure, because his overall awareness and his ability mean that he can
02:30 be a magnet for a press, drop a bit deeper, take some players with him, hit a first-time
02:34 bounce pass out to a teammate who his movement has left open.
02:38 And just on this whole, he makes Manchester City very difficult to press thing, just let's
02:42 look at this clip, let's freeze this clip right here.
02:44 There is absolutely nothing on.
02:46 If you showed this still to 100 people who had not seen this game, they would almost
02:51 certainly say what happens next is that Man United win the ball back and score and the
02:54 camera cuts to John Stones, he's going, "Oh no, silly me."
02:57 But what actually happens is this.
03:00 And just, oh, you know what it is?
03:03 I know normal people will watch goals back and nice passes and things like that, but
03:08 that's, I've watched this 10 times this morning.
03:10 That is, that is food to me.
03:12 It's what I live on.
03:13 Anyway, that's what he does in the build-up, but if there is no build-up, if there's nothing
03:15 going on, he'll just very happily carry the ball into the middle of the pitch, no matter
03:18 how congested it is.
03:20 He can do this because his dribbling and his close control are so good.
03:22 And if you try and tackle him, he'll just go past you, which again, makes him nearly
03:26 impossible to press.
03:28 And what does he do when he gets the ball into the middle of the pitch?
03:30 Well, he just knocks it around as comfortably with the midfielders as he was knocking it
03:34 around with the defenders because he is that accomplished on the ball.
03:37 It's pretty much playing at the same level as your Silvers and your Gunduans and your
03:40 De Bruynes.
03:41 He does not look out of place doing that.
03:43 He looks like he's been playing central midfield his entire life.
03:46 And while yes, he is there extensively to provide an overload to get this whole box
03:50 midfield thing going, if a bit of space opens up because one of the more advanced players
03:53 has dropped deep to receive the ball, he doesn't give a s***.
03:57 He'll just run into it.
03:58 Several times in the Cup final, he got in behind Manchester United from a starting position
04:02 that was in the back four.
04:04 Can you imagine trying to mark that?
04:06 And the thing is, you'd watch all of these clips and you'd go, "Oh yeah, definitely,
04:09 this is one of the best central midfielders/pivot players/number sixes in world football.
04:14 Absolutely."
04:15 But the thing is, this isn't even his job.
04:17 This is his hobby.
04:18 His job is being a central defender in a back four.
04:21 He just does this stuff because the situation requires it of him and he's one of the few
04:24 people who can actually rise to the challenge.
04:27 So yeah, in a way, not unlike f***ing Batman.
04:31 Like this is John Stone's superhero, fighting the high press and cleaning up the midfield
04:35 because he's the hero the Eddie Hart deserves.
04:37 But when he wakes up every morning, he's actually John Stone's this one, like international
04:41 businessman and playboy.
04:42 And is he still really good as John Stone's international businessman/playboy/central
04:46 defender?
04:47 Well, he won pretty much all of his aerial challenges and in the latter part of the game
04:51 when Man United brought Garnaccio on to try and run into the space this kind of aggressive
04:55 shape was leaving, he just dropped back into the back four and recovered the ball here
05:00 and put in a crucial block here and right at the end of the game was willing to headbutt
05:03 the crossbar just to ensure a late equaliser didn't drop below it.
05:06 Legitimately right, football teams this summer, last summer, next summer, they will spend
05:10 a hundred million plus trying to buy this exact player or someone they hope can be maybe
05:16 one day this exact player.
05:18 And Pep Guardiola has just pulled him out of the defence because he believed in him.
05:23 And if there's any part of you that's tempted to think this was a bit fortunate on Man City's
05:26 part that Pep's rolled the dice on this player and he's got really lucky finding out what
05:30 he can do, just look at this interview from a number of years ago.
05:33 And John, they have four excellent central defenders and John for the quality, personality
05:38 he has, I think he can play there.
05:39 And yes Guardiola will get all the applause for that because it was his idea and his giant
05:43 enormous swollen football brain, but this simply would not work without John Stones.
05:49 Like dare I say it, you could maybe put another centre forward in this system and they would
05:53 score a lot of goals.
05:54 It would still continue to function as well as it does.
05:57 But you put any other player right now, bar maybe two or three in the world, in that John
06:02 role, none of this is happening.
06:04 Bananas!
06:05 So anyway, yes, that's why I absolutely love watching John Stones at the minute and why
06:08 I think he deserves all the flowers in the world, which brings me to my final point.
06:13 At what stage do we start to consider John Stones as one of the all time great English
06:18 centre backs?
06:19 Five Premier League, six domestic cups, European Championship finalist, World Cup semi-finalist
06:25 and probably by the end of this week, possibly by the time you're watching this video, Champions
06:30 League winner.
06:31 Would that put him up there with the Ferdinands and the Terrys and the Campbells and the tightest
06:36 brambles of this world?
06:38 I think it does.
06:39 But obviously that's just my opinion, so let me know if you agree in the comments below
06:42 and if you don't, why don't you?
06:44 I actually really fancy having an argument today, so let's do it.
06:47 In the meantime though, you can get me on Twitter @AdamClearyClery and you can get
06:51 442 across the entire social spectrum at 442.
06:55 Until next time, it's goodbye from me and goodbye from John Stones here.
06:58 Say goodbye John Stones.
06:59 Bye John Stones.
07:00 Pretty sure that's what people from Yorkshire sound like.
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